Introduction and Allegro (Ravel)
Encyclopedia
Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet (French
: Introduction et allegro pour harpe, flûte, clarinette et quatuor) was written by Maurice Ravel
in 1905. It premiere
d on 22 February 1907 in Paris
.
, the Pleyel company
commissioned Claude Debussy
in 1904 to write his Danse sacrée et danse profane for harp
and orchestra
. The Érard company
responded by commissioning Maurice Ravel
to write a piece to display the expressive range of its double-action pedal harp. Ravel completed his Introduction and Allegro for a septet
of harp, flute
, clarinet
and string quartet
in June 1905, dedicating it to Albert Blondel, director of Maison Érard. He wrote it at breakneck speed, as he had to complete it before embarking on a boating holiday with friends.
, but it is more usually classified as a genuine chamber music work.
The Introduction and Allegro has two movements, played without a break. The Introduction, Très lent, takes only 26 bars
. The Allegro in a modified sonata form
begins with the solo harp expanding the material presented before. The woodwinds
expose a second theme, accompanied by pizzicato
. After a fff climax in the development, a harp cadenza
leads to a "straightforward" recapitulation and a close "without extensive fireworks or bombast of any kind". The work takes about 11 minutes to perform.
in Paris, featuring Micheline Kahn (harp), Philippe Gaubert
(flute), M. Pichard (clarinet), and the Quartet Firmin Touche, all under the direction of Charles Domergue.
It was premiered in the United States by a group including the harpist Carlos Salzedo
. Salzedo's then-wife Lucile Lawrence
, also a harpist, was personally instructed by Ravel in the performance of the work.
The Melos Ensemble was founded to play chamber music
like this for both woodwind
s and strings
, along with Beethoven's
Septet
and Octet, Schubert's
Octet
and Mendelssohn's Octet
. The ensemble recorded Ravel's work in both 1961 and 1967. Osian Ellis
was the harpist, playing with Richard Adeney
(flute), Gervase de Peyer
(clarinet), Emanuel Hurwitz
and Ivor McMahon
(violin), Cecil Aronowitz
(viola) and Terence Weil
(cello).
of his works, made no mention of it in his autobiography
, and referred to it in only two of his letters. In one of these letters, to Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht
on 26 February 1911, Ravel sanctioned the work being arranged for larger forces. In 1906 he himself had written a version for two pianos.
Later recordings include:
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
: Introduction et allegro pour harpe, flûte, clarinette et quatuor) was written by Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
in 1905. It premiere
Premiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
d on 22 February 1907 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Background
To show off its new chromatic pedal harpPedal harp
The pedal harp is a large and technically modern harp, designed primarily for classical music and played either solo, as part of chamber ensembles, as soloist with or as a section or member in an orchestra...
, the Pleyel company
Pleyel et Cie
Pleyel et Cie is a French piano manufacturing firm founded by the composer Ignace Pleyel in 1807. In 1815, he was joined by his son, Camille, as a business partner. The firm provided pianos to Frédéric Chopin, and also ran a concert hall, the Salle Pleyel, where Chopin performed his first — and...
commissioned Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
in 1904 to write his Danse sacrée et danse profane for harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
and orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
. The Érard company
Sébastien Érard
Sébastien Érard , born Sébastien Erhard, was a French instrument maker of German origin who specialised in the production of pianos and harps, developing the capacities of both instruments and pioneering the modern piano....
responded by commissioning Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
to write a piece to display the expressive range of its double-action pedal harp. Ravel completed his Introduction and Allegro for a septet
Septet
A septet is a formation containing exactly seven members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, but can be applied to any situation where seven similar or related objects are considered a single unit, such as a seven-line stanza of poetry....
of harp, flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
and string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
in June 1905, dedicating it to Albert Blondel, director of Maison Érard. He wrote it at breakneck speed, as he had to complete it before embarking on a boating holiday with friends.
Description
It is written in the key of G-flat major and it is the first piece to explore and exploit the full resources of the solo instrument. It is sometimes described as a miniature concertoConcerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
, but it is more usually classified as a genuine chamber music work.
The Introduction and Allegro has two movements, played without a break. The Introduction, Très lent, takes only 26 bars
Bar (music)
In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
. The Allegro in a modified sonata form
Sonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
begins with the solo harp expanding the material presented before. The woodwinds
Woodwind instrument
A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...
expose a second theme, accompanied by pizzicato
Pizzicato
Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of stringed instrument....
. After a fff climax in the development, a harp cadenza
Cadenza
In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display....
leads to a "straightforward" recapitulation and a close "without extensive fireworks or bombast of any kind". The work takes about 11 minutes to perform.
Premieres
The premiere took place on 22 February 1907 at the Circle Music Hall of the French Photographic SocietySociété française de photographie
The Société française de photographie is an association, founded in 1854, devoted to the history of photography. It has a large collection of photographs and old cameras...
in Paris, featuring Micheline Kahn (harp), Philippe Gaubert
Philippe Gaubert
Philippe Gaubert was a French musician who was a distinguished performer on the flute, a respected conductor, and a composer, primarily for the flute....
(flute), M. Pichard (clarinet), and the Quartet Firmin Touche, all under the direction of Charles Domergue.
It was premiered in the United States by a group including the harpist Carlos Salzedo
Carlos Salzedo
Carlos Salzedo , was a harpist, composer and conductor, born in Arcachon, France, who was one of the musical elite of his time.-France:...
. Salzedo's then-wife Lucile Lawrence
Lucile Lawrence
Lucile Lawrence was an American harpist. At the end of her life, she was actively teaching as a faculty member of Boston University and the Manhattan School of Music as well as teaching privately.-Career:Lawrence was born into a prominent family with historic roots in New England...
, also a harpist, was personally instructed by Ravel in the performance of the work.
The Melos Ensemble was founded to play chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
like this for both woodwind
Woodwind instrument
A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...
s and strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
, along with Beethoven's
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
Septet
Septet (Beethoven)
The Septet in E-flat major, Opus 20, by Ludwig van Beethoven, was sketched out in 1799, completed and first performed in 1800 and published in 1802. The score contains the notation: "Der Kaiserin Maria Theresia gewidmet", or translated, "Dedicated to the Empress Maria Theresa." It is scored for...
and Octet, Schubert's
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
Octet
Octet (Schubert)
The Octet in F major, D. 803 was composed by Franz Schubert in March 1824. It was commissioned by the renowned clarinetist Ferdinand Troyer and came from the same period as two of Schubert's other major chamber works, the Rosamunde and the Death and the Maiden string quartets.-Structure:Consisting...
and Mendelssohn's Octet
Octet (Mendelssohn)
Felix Mendelssohn's Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20 was composed in the autumn of 1825 , when the composer was aged 16. He wrote it as a birthday gift for his friend and violin teacher Eduard Rietz ; it was slightly revised in 1832 before the first public performance on 30 January 1836 at the...
. The ensemble recorded Ravel's work in both 1961 and 1967. Osian Ellis
Osian Ellis
Osian Gwynn Ellis CBE is a Welsh harpist and composer.-Career:Osian Ellis was born in Ffynnongroyw, Flintshire in 1928. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Gwendolen Mason, whom he later succeeded as Professor of Harp from 1959 to 1989. He joined the London Symphony Orchestra in 1961...
was the harpist, playing with Richard Adeney
Richard Adeney
Richard Gilford Adeney was a British flautist who played principal flute with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra, was a soloist and a founding member of the Melos Ensemble.-Biography:...
(flute), Gervase de Peyer
Gervase de Peyer
Gervase Alan de Peyer is an English clarinetist and conductor.-Professional career:Gervase de Peyer was born in London and attended Bedales School. He was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he studied clarinet with Frederick Thurston and piano with Arthur Alexander...
(clarinet), Emanuel Hurwitz
Emanuel Hurwitz
Emanuel Hurwitz CBE was a British violinist. He was born in London with parents of Russian-Jewish ancestry....
and Ivor McMahon
Ivor McMahon
Ivor McMahon was an English violinist. He played with notable orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra and is best known for playing second violin in the Melos Ensemble.-Professional career:...
(violin), Cecil Aronowitz
Cecil Aronowitz
Cecil Aronowitz was a British viola player, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber musician and an influential teacher at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.-Biography:...
(viola) and Terence Weil
Terence Weil
Terence Weil was a British cellist, principal cellist of the English Chamber Orchestra, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber musician and an influential teacher at the Royal Northern College of Music.-Biography:Terence Weil was trained as a cellist under Herbert Walenn at the...
(cello).
Recordings
The Introduction and Allegro was the very first of the small number of his own works that Ravel recorded (1923; Gwendolen Mason, harp; Robert Murchie, flute; Haydn P. Draper, clarinet); and it was often performed at his concerts. Yet he omitted it from the catalogueMusic catalog
In the music industry, a collection of musical compositions is cataloged into a music catalog. The owner owns the copyrights of the cataloged compositions.-See also:* Music publisher * History of music publishing...
of his works, made no mention of it in his autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, and referred to it in only two of his letters. In one of these letters, to Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht
Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht was a French composer, conductor and writer.- Life and career :Inghelbrecht was born in Paris, the son of a viola-player. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire and made his debut as a conductor in 1908 at the Théâtre des Arts.Inghelbrecht entered the Conservatoire aged 7...
on 26 February 1911, Ravel sanctioned the work being arranged for larger forces. In 1906 he himself had written a version for two pianos.
Later recordings include:
- Denise Herbecht with an ensemble led by Piero CoppolaPiero CoppolaPiero Coppola , was an Italian conductor, pianist and composer.-Life and career:Coppola was born in Milan; his parents were both singers. He studied at the Milan Conservatory, graduating in piano and composition in 1910. By 1911 he was already conducting opera at La Scala opera house in Milan...
(1931) - Lily LaskineLily LaskineLily Laskine was one of the most prominent harpists of the twentieth century. She was a frequent performing partner of several distinguished French flautists, including Marcel Moyse and Jean-Pierre Rampal. Laskine also served as professor of harp at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1948 to 1958...
, with flautistFlautistA flautist or flutist is a musician who plays an instrument in the flute family. See List of flautists.The choice of "flautist" versus "flutist" is the source of dispute among players of the instrument...
Marcel MoyseMarcel MoyseMarcel Moyse was a famous French flutist. Many works were composed for Moyse including the 1934 Flute Concerto by Jacques Ibert...
and the Quatuor Calvet (1938) - Ann Mason Stockton and the Hollywood String QuartetHollywood String QuartetThe Hollywood String Quartet was formed in 1939 by violinist and conductor Felix Slatkin and his wife, cellist Eleanor Aller.The original formation of the quartet was rounded out by Joachim Chassman and Paul Robyn. They broke up in 1941 due to Slatkin's entry into the army. The quartet was...
- Melos Ensemble with harpist Osian Ellis (1961, 1967)
- Marisa RoblesMarisa RoblesMarisa Robles is a Spanish harpist.She was born in Spain, where she studied the harp with Luisa Menarguez, and studied music at the Madrid Conservatory, graduating at the age of sixteen in 1953...
, with Christopher Hyde-SmithChristopher Hyde-SmithChristopher Hyde-Smith is a virtuoso flautist.Christopher Hyde-Smith's flute playing has been compared in The Guardian to Sir Laurence Olivier's acting in variety of expression, characterization and style. He has played all over the British Isles and at many festivals including Aldeburgh, the...
, flute; Thea KingThea KingDame Thea King DBE FRCM FGSM was a British clarinettist.Thea King was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, the daughter of Henry Walter Mayer King, the manager of a family engineering business, George. W. King Ltd., based in Hitchin then Stevenage, Hertfordshire, and his wife, Dorothea...
, clarinet; Jürgen Hess and Galina Solodchin, violin; John UnderwoodJohn UnderwoodJohn Underwood may refer to:* John Underwood , early 17th century English actor* John Underwood , former Director of Communications for British Labour Party* John W.H. Underwood, U.S. Representative from Georgia...
, viola; Joy Hall, cello) (1970) - Edward Druzinsky and the full string section of the Chicago Symphony OrchestraChicago Symphony OrchestraThe Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
led by Jean MartinonJean MartinonJean Martinon was a French conductor and composer.-Biography:Martinon was born in Lyon, where he began his education, going on to the Conservatoire de Paris to study under Albert Roussel for composition, under Charles Munch and Roger Désormière for conducting, under Vincent d'Indy for harmony,... - Nicanor ZabaletaNicanor ZabaletaNicanor Zabaleta was a Spanish virtuoso and populariser of the harp.Zabaleta was born in San Sebastián, Spain, on January 7, 1907. In 1914 his father, an amateur musician, bought him a harp in an antique shop. He soon began taking lessons from Vincenta Tormo de Calvo and Luisa Menarguez...
.